As a hiring manager who wants to bring aboard top performers, you need to act quickly. Taking too long to make hiring decisions means that most in-demand candidates will decide to work with another employer – often your competitor. Cultivating a reputation for making slow hiring decisions may promote the belief that your company is slow at making other decisions as well. This will discourage even more talented professionals from applying with your organization. It is critical to show intent to move quickly to an offer during the first interview stages to keep top candidates engaged – especially for highly skilled and difficult to fill positions.
- Top Candidates Are Quickly Hired
The most desirable candidates tend to be off the market within an average of 10 days. It is common for top talent to receive multiple offers in the current hiring environment shortly after beginning their job search. Bottom line, wait and it’s too late. As one of our clients always says, once you find your car keys, you stop looking. The longer you wait to extend your own offer, the less likely it will be considered. Top performers may be accepting another offer while you are midway through your hiring process. Candidates may not have time to wait for a potential offer from you with current offers in hand or interest in other competing organizations. Keep top talent engaged by informing them clearly of your timeline and process from the first conversation.
- Slow Hiring Weakens Quality of Hire
Taking more time in the hiring decision does not improve the quality of hire. Taking more time to gather information and feedback and discuss your short list of candidates typically results in the favored ones going to work for someone else. With your chosen candidates off the market, you are forced to decide among your remaining pool of average or weaker candidates. When your preferred choices work for your competitors, they become more innovative and productive while you continue waiting to fill a position. Cultivating a relationship with a professional recruiter who can manage the prescreening selection process and keeping top talent engaged can be a huge edge in the hiring process. Having a good understanding of a candidate’s background ahead of time can take a lot of time in your process. A recruiter will not only be able to manage this for you, they can also keep the candidate interested in your company and opportunity on your behalf This will help you craft the most attractive offer based on their key expectations.
- Company May Be Viewed as Less Desirable
Taking too long to make hiring decisions could affect your company’s reputation. Candidates may post on Glassdoor or other review sites about their experiences with your slow hiring process. Because top performers want to make fast, accurate choices, they want an employer with a reputation for being organized and able to make quick decisions. Having a long or complicated process and hiring slowly can also leave the perception to potential candidates that there are greater organizational issues. Why are the roles open so long? Are there turnover issues? What is the stability of this company? A bad candidate experience is a bad customer experience and will discourage other top talent in the future.
- Get in Touch with Next Level Professional
Working with a trusted recruiter can speed up your hiring process. When you are in the market for bringing aboard a top performer, let Next Level Professional help. Contact Paul Ladson at (262) 293-4288 or paul.ladson@nlstaff.com.